LITTLETON, N.H. CAP) - Funeral
services were scheduled Tuesday for
a priest who was killed by a former
mental patient — declared no longer
dangerous — and his wife, who then
turned their guns on themselves.

Peter Linsley, 35, and Jane Linsley,
28, both of Concord, committed
suicide after taking the Rev. Joseph
John Sands hostage on Friday and
shooting him in the head and stomach,
police said.

They were armed with .357-caliber
Magnums and claimed to be "king
and queen of the church."

They died in the rectory of St. Rose
of Lima Roman Catholic Church in
this northern New Hampshire community
of about 5,400 people.

Sands, 46, director of a home for
troubled boys, was called to the
church when the couple arrived
shortly after noon demanding to see a
priest. The regular pastor, the Rev.
Stephen Scruton, was vacationing.

Assistant Attorney General Anne
Cagwin said that during five hours of
negotiations, the couple's only
demands were for cigarettes, which
were supplied.

Police said the couple had been in
New Hampshire two years. Linsley's
neighbors in a trailer park said they
knew nothing about the couple.

Police said Linsley was committed
to the state mental hospital in Concord
after pleading innocent by
reason of insanity to aggravated
assault against a policeman in July
1977. He was released in May 1978
when declared no longer dangerous.

Benton Lyons, 47, said Sands saved
the lives of his wife, Patricia, and
their son, Mike, 20, who were working
at the rectory when the Linsleys
barged in.

Mrs. Lyons fled when she was sent
to fetch a dog from the Linsleys' car,
and the son jumped from a second story
window to a porch roof.

Lyons said Sands told his son that
"if you want to get out alive, get out quick.”